Two People, One Life
by Heng
Summary: They weren't the sappy, love-sick, I'd-walk-across-a-thousand-miles-of-hot-lava-for-you type couple, but what went unsaid always went mutually understood. -ShikakuYoshino-


The first time Shikaku and Yoshino met, neither one of them even liked the other. They were assigned to the same stupid team for some stupid mission to get some stupid scrolls. At 20, Shikaku was a newly promoted jounin, and Yoshino and their other teammate chuunin. At first she was excited to be led by such a highly-acclaimed "genius" shinobi, but his indifferent attitude and neglect of "too troublesome" duties quickly disillusioned her. (Honestly, is at least getting up before their enemy does just too much effort for him?) He saw her complaints and reprimands as highly bossy and frustrating. (Just who _was_ the leader of this mission, anyway?) But damn, as annoying and troublesome as she was, she _did _look really hot in that barely-covered mesh, with that ebony, silky hair. Still, by the end of the mission, both wished never to see the other again.

* * *

That wish was not granted. A couple months later they ran into each other at a restaurant. Yoshino had already sat down and was glancing through the menu when she saw Shikaku walk in. _Shit. Not that good-for-nothing asshole. _When Shikaku noticed a pair of nice legs belonging to a girl sitting by herself, face hidden behind a menu, his eyes lit up and he and sauntered over. "Hey, sweetheart." He growled with a low, gruff...almost sexy voice, Yoshino noticed. Shoving that idea out of her mind, she slammed the menu on the table. His face looked as if she had shoved a kunai right through his mouth. Yoshino pulled off the flirtiest, most honey-sweet voice she could. "Why hey there, Shi…Shi…Wait, don't tell me, Shikako-chan?" She smirked at the femininity of the invented name. He groaned. "Not _you_. Damn. I thought I had found a _pretty_ girl…." "Wow. You're a lazy ass, a perv, _and_ a rude jerk. I'm so impressed I think I'll get myself drunk and let you take me to your place and sleep with you."

She ended up doing just that.

* * *

The next morning Shikaku woke up alone and naked with a splitting headache and a very strong desire to puke. When he finally finished emptying the remains of his dinner, he remembered the cause of the morning's discomforts and felt like puking again. At some point in the day, he at last descended the stairs of his apartment building, only to find Yoshino at the bottom of the steps, tapping her foot, hands on her hips. _Oh shit._ "Do you _really _sleep till two in the afternoon every day, Nara?!" She screamed. "What do you want, Yoshino?" Not bad. He usually didn't remember the names of the women he got laid with. "I want to be clear about this," She hissed, giving him a flinty glare. I hope never to see your ugly face again for the rest of my life." And with a flip of her long black hair, she whirled around on her heel and marched away.

But she really _did_ have to admit that he was pretty good-looking, in a rugged sort of way.

And for some stupid reason, Shikaku felt like he had just missed the greatest opportunity of his life.

* * *

_Damn. Chouza and Inoichi are never gonna let me live this down._ Shikaku thought as he walked up to the door. After days of searching for the address, it all came down to this. He didn't know what he was doing. He never did this. It was already several weeks after…that. What the hell was he thinking? He lifted his hand to knock, hesitated, nearly turned around and scurried back to his apartment, but strengthened his resolve. When Yoshino opened the door, her face was first of shock, then repugnance, then fury. "I THOUGHT I HAD EXPLICITLY TOLD YOU THAT I NEVER WANTED TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" He winced. "Just…Just thought I'd apologize. Sorry for being a jerk." He avoided her piercing glare and turned around, desperate to hurry home and get away from her strangely penetrating eyes. She watched him, somewhat taken aback, somewhat pleased, and somewhat displeased. Before she could stop herself, control herself, get that damn kunoichi self-discipline in check, she called out to him and invited him in.

This time they didn't do anything weird. They sat and talked. He revealed his hobby of playing shougi; she served him tea and brought a board out to play. She won, leaving him rather stunned and somewhat upset. "What, never lost to a girl before?" She teased, soft rosy lips curling up on one side. He won the next game and found that she made a pretty good opponent for him. Never having met another player who could pose a challenge before, Shikaku was genuinely intrigued and happy that he hadn't chickened out.

* * *

It wasn't long till they started dating. Sure, there were plenty of arguments: you're so loud and bossy this, get off your lazy ass for once that; but both felt truly lucky to have someone who could, in the end, put up with their flaws. The few times Yoshino smiled – not smirked, but smiled – at him, Shikaku practically melted. They weren't the sappy, love-sick, I'd-walk-across-a-thousand-miles-of-hot-lava-for-you type couple, but what went unsaid always went mutually understood. He didn't buy her jewelry all the time or get flowers for her every day (though on multiple occasions it _did _prove quite convenient that one of his best friends owned a flower shop); she didn't cling to him like a pathetic, desperate little girl. But every so often they would exchange looks, and both would just know.

* * *

In fact, this connection was so deep that they didn't even say the three magic words till a week before he proposed. When it finally happened, Shikaku realized he could actually spend the rest of his life with this authoritative and nagging but sometimes gentle woman and hoped beyond hope that she felt the same. That day he bought a ring and offered it to her a week later. It wasn't anything flashy or overly romantic – just a silent gesture, holding her from behind one night, the ring in front of her in his open palm. Yoshino suddenly realized that, after three years with him, she too could spend the rest of her life with this infuriatingly intelligent but undoubtedly devoted man. She took the ring from his hand, slipped it on her finger, and leaned into his embrace. Catching a glimpse of his face, she didn't think she had ever seen him happier and smirked inwardly before she dozed off in his arms.

* * *

When she told him she was pregnant, he fainted. "Seriously, Nara?" She mocked him, raising one eyebrow and gazing down at him when he came to. "Seven S-ranked missions, Jonin Commander, master strategist of the village, and two little words make you pass out?" Two years into their marriage, Shikaku should have expected this to come up sometime soon. Then he thought seriously about it. He would be a father soon. In nine months he would hold his own child. Boy or girl, he didn't care. He'd teach it the jutsu of his clan the way his father taught him, guide its little fingers into the proper positions, watch its eyes light up when it realized it could _feel _its own shadow. He'd watch it grow up, graduate the Academy, get its own genin team, have a jounin sensei. The thought actually made him chuckle to himself. Yoshino's smile stretched from one ear to the other. "So you're excited too?" And she flung her arms around his neck in glee.

* * *

Thirty years later, Shikaku and Yoshino would be sitting against the trunk of a tree in the Nara lands, their granddaughter, at eight years of age, elatedly chasing Shikamaru's shadow. Temari was fanning herself in the summer heat, seated next to her husband and watching their daughter with a careful eye. Bored of the shadow-tag game, the little girl ran to her _ojiisan_ and giggled as she squirmed away from his tickles. As the eight-year-old rolled away in the grass, Shikaku lay a hand around Yoshino's waist and sighed into her graying hair, gazing at his granddaughter, his son, his daughter-in-law, and his wife. "And to think…When we first met, we absolutely hated each other." Yoshino elbowed him in the gut. "I love you too, Nara Shikaku."

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters.


End file.
